What sort of drive performance loss are people seeing after suspending their drives? I immediately noticed some hesitation/delay during boot.

It's obvious the "floating" drives now have nothing to stablize them so any vibration must translate to the actuator inside.

None of this is valid if your drive is less than 10 years old. There's been tons of discussion about it, as well as white papers from Seagate & Hitachi. Unless you've really rigged yourself a high Q super bouncy suspension, there should be zero effect on any aspect of performance with a modern drive.

I suggest you time several bootups w/ the elastic, then go back to hard mount and time the boot that way. See if there is a time diference. I've never seen it -- and I've tried this comparison. I've also been suspending drives for 10 years.

What sort of drive performance loss are people seeing after suspending their drives? I immediately noticed some hesitation/delay during boot.

It's obvious the "floating" drives now have nothing to stablize them so any vibration must translate to the actuator inside.

None of this is valid if your drive is less than 10 years old.

Maybe it's a "I'm used to be laying flat" thing, not a performance thing?

The drives are obviously not new, and "are used to" lay parallel to the ground. If they switched orientation, that might have placed an uncommon force on the actuators, which they'll eventually "absorb".

Not that it might translate to performance losses, but behavior might be slightly different... Just guessing, of course... And no, I'm not hoping to start a flame.

And there's also the "reverse-placebo" effect. You see it different, then something must definitely be wrong. Well, in some regards, it is. The suspension removes some of the sounds from the typical POST process, so the early stages of drive spin up are muted, though still occurring - you just don't hear it.

I think I'm going to remove the drives this evening and fit them back into the drive cage and then suspend the drive cage instead. It's going to get hot here for the next few months and I'd like the fan in place.

Can't wait to order my mCubed controller. That way the fan will only run during hot days and it won't be needed in the cooler evenings.

Hi everyone,
I'm new here and stumbled upon the site after going insane from hard drive vibration noise in my cheapo Compaq Presario case. After viewing several amazing posts here, I got inspired to dig around the house for bungee cords and whatever else I could find. This is my first attempt and it only took a few minutes to assemble. I may modify/secure everything later, but for now it is providing me with such an improvement for such little effort, I am happy to leave it as is until, of course, the urge to tinker returns.

Gone are the case buzzing and hard drive clatter during seeks. All I hear now are the fans.

My inspirations:

Motherboard standoffs:

My rig (TA DA!!!!):I couldn't find a large enough piece of foam so I used adhesive floor protectors under the motherboard standoffs!

The idea is that having a single thick strand of rubber reduces the surface area, thus reducing the damage (from UV, ozone, seawater, chemicals, whatever). Coupled with a high durability elastomer rubber.

My first crack at DIY suspension. This is a laptop HDD in the drive cage of a Silverstone LC17. I used some basic bungie cords and removed the hooks but left the crimp ring attached. The ends are held together by a zip tie around those crimp rings. it is nice and tight.

Another rubber band were placed on the rear and front side to prevent slipping

A straw were used to hold the rubber

All I need to make this elastic suspension are 50cm of rubber band, some staple pin, small amount of glue and a pair of straw.
1 meter of rubber band just cost me 3000 IDR or equal to .33USD at local fabric store

Nice work guys but doubt you can outdo this...Behold the ultimate jock strap suspension modSilenced my buzzing samsung for good!!

Not considering the lack of cable management on that case and the shivers the picture sends down my spine (not in a good way, if I may add ) for knowing what that strap has been in contact with, that is a rather ingenious solution, with one (rather large) caveat: there are only one and a half axis of support on that HDD. You stopped it from falling, yes, and partially from swinging in a way that might bump the sides of the case, but the disk is free to hit the front fan with a big *thud*, right next to the platter holder/head parking area.

Since your solution is "sports-inspired" (let's put it that way, shall we? ), you might want to also strap the HDD to the bottom of the case, to limit front-to-back-to-front movements (yes, several puns intended there ).

Not considering the lack of cable management on that case and the shivers the picture sends down my spine (not in a good way, if I may add ) for knowing what that strap has been in contact with, that is a rather ingenious solution, with one (rather large) caveat: there are only one and a half axis of support on that HDD. You stopped it from falling, yes, and partially from swinging in a way that might bump the sides of the case, but the disk is free to hit the front fan with a big *thud*, right next to the platter holder/head parking area.

Since your solution is "sports-inspired" (let's put it that way, shall we? ), you might want to also strap the HDD to the bottom of the case, to limit front-to-back-to-front movements (yes, several puns intended there ).

Yes that is a problem but this case isnt going to move anywhere soon, its an old classic antec sx1030 and its built like a rock....besides its always nice to let it hang freely but I have made some adjustments so I can still keep my hdd cage, more importantly tho jock strap is not quite so visible

besides its always nice to let it hang freely OK, this is officially the thread with the most double entendres I have EVER participated on... lol

wanky wrote:

but I have made some adjustments so I can still keep my hdd cage, more importantly tho jock strap is not quite so visible

Wow, three-in-one solution...

Also, this is probably the first time I have seen regular live case wiring to act as a bumper for an HDD... Probably a little bit less airflow for the HDD with that new solution, but God knows how much the GPU needs it. Just keep an eye out for HDD temps, which is a sound advice for just anyone into decoupling/suspension: it seems HDD vendors actually account for (and count with) heat transfer to the case frame when designing HDDs, so temps tend to ramp up a little (or A LOT, depending on the drive) when they're fully decoupled (in that regard, passive cooling extenders and spring-based suspension are a tad better).

Since I started using my computer as a source for my stereo system I've wanted to try and make it quieter. I figured I'd try this and see if it worked but not invest a lot in case I can't tell a difference. I rigged this up with 6 rubber bands. I think I need to file and sand the sharp edges of the aluminum cage if I leave this in long term so the bands don't get cut up.

I've become interested in suspending the hard drives in my Dell Vostro 200 Mini-Tower, however, I can't seem to find a source for the elastic cord used in so many of the successful suspension projects in this thread. Does anybody have any idea where I could find elastic cord? I have read that it can be found in material stores, but is there anywhere online that it can be sourced from?

I've become interested in suspending the hard drives in my Dell Vostro 200 Mini-Tower, however, I can't seem to find a source for the elastic cord used in so many of the successful suspension projects in this thread. Does anybody have any idea where I could find elastic cord? I have read that it can be found in material stores, but is there anywhere online that it can be sourced from?

A good sewing shop will have a big variety of elastic cord for clothing -- from quite thick and heavy to very thin to flat & wide, etc. Super cheap. Best to go, see and handle it before you buy. You want something not too thin & too easily stretched.

A good sewing shop will have a big variety of elastic cord for clothing -- from quite thick and heavy to very thin to flat & wide, etc. Super cheap. Best to go, see and handle it before you buy. You want something not too thin & too easily stretched.

Thanks for the reply. I'll try find a sewing shop and see what they've got.

Damn, there are a couple of solutions here that make me wince. A lot of ingenious ones, but not counting the ones where drives are actually dangling around, there's the issue with the ones using just regular rubber bands (not the ones with woven stuff or other fabric around them):

Gents, those things get tender over time. And by over time, I mean, quickly. Add heat to the mix, and some of you should expect to hear a "bang-crunch" sound when the rubber bands break and the drive falls to the bottom of your case.

Be warned!

The ones with just rope are pretty cool, though, I think I might replicate that in my setup (18 drives in a Lian Li case).

Also, consider suspending your case on the wall with padding. That's what I did, and all the resonance is absorbed by the paddings.

I'm still using these cheap elastic bands. These are changed once every 9-12 month. I only use the 1st and 3rd slots. If the bands loosen due to heat, there's still the bands in the 2nd and 4th slots to prevent the drives from falling.

BTW, I've a Barracuda IV 80 gb (remember those with the SeaShield!!) that's still working after being suspended for 5+ years. When it was first released, it was the champion silent fluid bearing drive. It was recently retired

Click thumbnails for bigger pictures. I took these pics back in 2005...still using the same Antec Sonata v1. SP1614N's gone though. I hit the drive while it was spinning (dont ask)

I'm still using these cheap elastic bands. These are changed once every 9-12 month. I only use the 1st and 3rd slots. If the bands loosen due to heat, there's still the bands in the 2nd and 4th slots to prevent the drives from falling.

BTW, I've a Barracuda IV 80 gb (remember those with the SeaShield!!) that's still working after being suspended for 5+ years. When it was first released, it was the champion silent fluid bearing drive. It was recently retired

Click thumbnails for bigger pictures. I took these pics back in 2005...still using the same Antec Sonata v1. SP1614N's gone though. I hit the drive while it was spinning (dont ask)

Looks good! But still, if those bands snap, even with additional bands or drives underneath, you're gonna have a drive receiving some shock. With heads either active or unparked, you could still damage your platters. There are some pretty nice elastic bands out there which are woven of a mixture of what I'd guess is some sort of spandex and cotton perhaps. The kind you use for making clothes. You should be able to get them in any store selling fabrics and sewing equipment.

I used a single piece of cord which was a draw string for a sport bag, I have extra long screws in the underneath of the hard drive which are positioned so that they hook on the cord to stop the hard drive falling out in travel

I would like to hear your thoughts about this method that I use for drive decoupling. I've seen many ideas in this forum, but not many I'd use outside my own system, because they seem either unsafe or too difficult for a man with casual modding skills. The idea is to reuse Antec rails in standard cases. The rails are cheap if you order from Antec, and free if you have spares from a previous Sonata III or NSK6500 build.

You mount the drive with the rail facing the opposite direction, and attach the rail to the side of a standard drive bay with strong zip ties. Although grommets are not considered substitute for full-on suspension, I find that their decoupling effect can be improved by using longer screws and lining up two grommets on each screw. Also, I haven't checked, but it may be possible to mount two drives adjacent to each other.

My HD installation for my HTPC/fileserver. The small case is lying on the side, so I had to build a cage, which can be placed wherever there is enough space on the case floor (side). In combination with an Atom/Ion platform this is the only system fan, which shovels hot air outside the case. Maybe a little overkill just for HD suspension, but works like a charm in this combination! I can't imagine any situation this setup runs hot!

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